Last Friday I was really excited to be headed a girls only party (appropriately named “Girl Party”) at Hillary’s house. Todd had arranged to hang out with guys, and they had the table saw out when we rolled up to prove the point that they were going to be doing Man Stuff all evening. I fetched Naomi and Mandy and after a tearful goodbye from Naomi’s oldest boy, we sped on over, ready to gourge ourselves on candy, chips and celebrity gossip magazines.

It was quite a surprise, then, when we climbed the stairs and there were balloons, a pile of prezzies wrapped in yellow, and a roomful of wonderful girls yelling “surprise!” in my direction! It took me a few minutes, and indeed the whole night, to wrap my head around being thrown a surprise baby shower. Hillary and Cerra had planned unique shower games and yummy food–eating a lot at showers is key. It was truly special (and super sneaky!).

After a few hours and a few early birds taking off, the rest of us spent another long night playing Rock Band (also key at showers, right?) and talking about parenting, adoption, etc. I swear, beware when you ask me about “how it’s going,” because I inevitably go off for thirty-seven hours!